Child-resistant closures for medicaments have been known in the art for nearly fifty years. These caps generally require two opposed movements acting at the same time to overcome the locking mechanism. For example, one type of cap requires a user to squeeze the cap at specific points, causing a deformation, and then to rotate the cap. If either the squeezing or rotating step is not performed, the cap cannot be opened. Another common method for imparting child-resistance on a cap is to require that the cap be pushed in a downward direction and then turned in order to be removed. Again, it can be seen that the two movements are opposed to one another; it is only through application of this unnatural combination of movements that the cap can be removed. Such a cap is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,316,161.
However, such closures also required a separate dosage cup to be manufactured and stored with the bottle and closure. This leads to increased manufacturing costs and well as an increased “storage cost” to the end user, as they are required to store an additional item. Further, there is a potential for the dosage caps to get lost as they were not securely affixed to the bottle and closure.
As a result, in light of the foregoing, it is clear that there is an unmet need in the art. The prior art closures fail to maximize the ease of both manufacture and storage of child-resistant closures for liquid medicaments. The present invention, through its unique combination of features, overcomes the problem and meets the need for providing compact closures for liquid medicaments which require fewer manufactured parts to permit access to the liquid medicament and provide for accurate measurement of the dispensed medicament while still maintaining a child-resistant closure assembly.